A quick messenger bag

Hello fellow bissums,

sorry for the radio silence. What with it being a glorious Scottish summer and all I've been out in the garden watching nature do it's thing. I've also been sunning myself in Venice for a week and nourished my creative soul and satisfied my desire to eat gelato for seven days on the run.

Anyway while I was in the Veneto, it struck me that the tea towel is surely one of the most ubiquitous of holiday souvenirs. It's a daily reminder of cheery times spent with people you love in (hopefully) unforgettable destinations. But eventually, the poor wee thing gets washed out and stained with lord knows what in the quest to keep your kitchen tidy. What if there was a way to combine everything that is functional and practical about the humble tea towel, with a stylish reminder of good times had on holidays I pondered?

I've had a little habit going for a while now of sorting through piles of tea towels in thrift shops and choosing the best ones to take home to add to my fabric family. I like to take a moment and imagine who purchased each one and how they felt about being in their chosen destination. Or perhaps it was an unwanted gift for someone who wasn't lucky enough to be at said destination. In any case my collection has grown steadily. I was most thrilled to find one of the old school calendar tea towels from the year I was born and some from the part of Scotland in which I now reside. I chose however, for this remake, to use a gorgeous tea towel from New Zealand, my home country which had a pretty collection of stamp images and a map of NZ. I should have taken a snap of her in her original glory before snipping her up.

Handy outside pocket on the back of the bag

Another handy little inside pocket

Anyway, after a little googling I came across a fab tutorial for a simple messenger bag and thought it was the very thing for my project. I used an old pillow case for the lining and a salvaged piece of navy corduroy for the main fabric. It was quick and simple to stitch up, no fastenings or zippers here. Next time you're thinking about ditching a pile of old tea towels think again and get thee to thy sewing machine pronto (like the way I casually dropped in some Italian lingo there?)!

xx